you can't make everybody happy all the time. there's people who love us and people who hate us. >> for the record i fall firmly into the people who love them camp. mama june, sugar bear, pumpkin and the greatest political mind of our time, honey boo boo. watch plot foiled. how the fbi said it caught a man trying to blow up new york's financial nerve center just blocks away from ground zero. deadly outbreak. e. coli traced to a county fair kills a child and sickens dozens of others. binders full of women. the now famous debate phrase that might have real consequences as both candidates try to win the female vote. good morning. welcome to "early start," everyone, i'm john berman. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east.

first, we're starting to learn more about the young man accused in the alleged plot to bomb the federal reserve bank of new york. the 21-year-old was in the united states from bangladesh. he was at southeast missouri university where he studied from january through may of this year. nafis is in federal custody this morning, charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. >> the bank building is located in lower manhattan in the heart of the financial district, a few blocks east of the world trade center and all that rebuilding under way now at ground zero. our national correspondent suzanne candiotti has been on this story. walk us through this plot and how the fbi says they busted him. >> sure. after coming here and after studying in college and then moving on to new york, not surprisingly this guy uses social media. he gets on facebook. according to prosecutors, he hooks up, he connects with someone that he thinks is going to be able to help him. then he can recruit for the

cause. unfortunately for him, fortunately for us it turns out that this is someone who is a source for the fbi. well then it's for him, according to prosecutors, it's all about jihad. it's all about destroying america, wrecking the economy. he even talks about the possibility of doing something that would stop the presidential election. and what he didn't know was that the people that were brought in to this in this undercover elaborate fbi sting were all people who were working undercover for the fbi and for the new york police department. then he set about to select a target. prosecutors say it was his idea after new york police commissioner has to say. >> he comes here with, again, the purpose of committing some sort of jihad here in the united states. he goes to the new york stock exchange. he see that's there is significant security there. he shifts his target to the

federal reserve bank. >> and, of course, what a target. the new york federal reserve bank is the largest reservoir of gold bouillon, a lot of cash in there, too. he proceeds, he moves on. and he even talked about motivation. all of this, i'm told by sources, is on audio tape and videotape. a lot of evidence when eventually it moves to court. he says "i came up to this conclusion that targeting america's economy is the most efficient way to draw the path of obliteration of america." in fact, we're told according to the federal complaint that he wanted to take out a high ranking u.s. official. i'm told by a source that that is -- that was president obama. but it was mentioned in passing. he didn't do anything with it. and went on to select another target. allegedly. >> you mentioned a videotape message. the fbi says that he actually videotaped a message right before his attempt? >> that's right. all this was supposed to come down yesterday.

according to prosecutors, they're on their way to the federal reserve bank just before they arrive on the scene with this supposed bomb in a van. he says i want to stop at a hotel. they do it. he wants to make a suicide tape. and here's what he says in part. "i just want something big. something very big that will shake the whole country and will make muslims one step closer to run the whole world." >> wow. he does that on the way to the bank which he thinks he's about to blow up. >> exactly. >> then they pull up to the reserve bank. when he goes to detonate the bomb, it isn't really a bomb. it's a fake. uses a cell phone to set it off, that's when they move in for the bust. >> wow. that is a chilling story but fascinating. thank you so much for being with us this morning. and this just in to cnn. eight suspected al qaeda operatives killed by a u.s. drone strike in yemen.

that attack taking place at a farmhouse in southern yemen. according to officials, a senior leader of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula was one of those killed. >> we'll stay on that story. the confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks speaking in and out court, lecturing the military tribunal accusing the u.s. of hypocrisy sympathy. he accused the u.s. of killing many more people in the name of national security than he is accused of murdering. they're accused of funding and training the hijackers. they are all facing the death penalty. four more people died in the outbreak of fungal meningitis for a total now of 19 deaths. federal health officials now report that 247 people across 15 states have been sickened. that outbreak is traced to a contaminated pain steroid made by a massachusetts fa

pharmaceutical company. we have more troubling health news. officials are investigating a deadly outbreak of e. coli infection that is traced to a county fair. 61 people including three dozen children have now become ill. one child died. the officials believe the source of the outbreak is the petting zoo. it is often spread from animals to humans. 20,000 confidential files and alleged boy scout sex abusers will be released to the public today. the organization so-called perversion files identified more than 1200 boy scout leaders and volunteers from across the country banned from scouting after being suspected of pedophilia and related offenses. onest victims of a boy scout predator who was convicted spoke to our casey wynan. >> just thinking about it makes me angry because how could you do that to somebody? how could you bring yourself to do that to somebody that is so

innocent and, you know, has done nothing wrong. >> the documents being released today cover a period from 1965 to 1985. >> changing gears to sports news. advantage cardinals. red birds beating the giants 3-1 in game three of the national league championship series. matt carpenter, the unlikely hero hitting a two-run homer after replacing injured star carlos beltran. the game was delayed nearly 3 1/2 hours by rain. the cards now lead that series 2-1. the injury to beltran, though, he's one of the best players in the postseason. that could be huge. game four is tonight in st. louis. and mother nature threw the tigers and yankees a bit of a curve. game four of the alcs was delayed and then postponed due to rain. but actually never came. the decision was made to preserve the integrity of an uninterrupted game. they'll try again this afternoon

in detroit. meantime, the yankees alex rodriguez was not in the lineup again last night. he did talk to reporters addressing questions about his suddenly uncertain future with the yankees. >> there is $30 million sitting on the bench. the story is when he was taken out of the game he was eyeballing a couple women in the stands. he threw them baseballs with his phone number on it. >> not a good idea. >> probably not when you're benched. tough times for alex rodriguez. >> it may have sounded funny at the time but mitt romney's debate reference about binders full of women is now a serious campaign issue. what both sides are now saying to court women voters. that's coming up next. [ female announcer ] ready for a taste of what's hot?

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in new york buns again tonight. they will be attending a charity dinner. this charity event is all about laughs. do you think these two men can get with the program after what we witnessed tuesday night? >> you know, they have to. they're doing this for the kids, right? this is to benefit the catholic archdiocese there in new york for a charity. this is something we've seen before. they have to show up. we saw in 2008 john mccain and then senator obama going to this dinner putting on the laughs. here's a taste of what we might expect. >> this campaign needed the common touch of a working man. after all, it began so long ago with a harolded arrival of a man known to oprah winfrey as the one. being a friend and colleague of about a rack, i just called him that one. >> you know i got my name barak from my father.

what you may not know is barak is actually swahili for that one. and i got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn't think i'd ever run for president. >> and just for a little context, that sort of exchange almost a little back and forth in a way the way they were playing off each other with the jokes, that happened around the same time right after this town hall style debate that we saw in hofstra. it was also at hofstra four years ago. yeah, i think they'll put on the laughs. i love they have to take this right turn from the very serious, kind of smacking each other on the campaign trail and they have to be funny tonight. >> let's hope they can accomplish that. so the presidential debate seems to have shifted the focus of the race to women. both candidates now are working really, really hard to woo female voters. what can you tell us about that? >> that's right. you had to look no further than the president's wrist band yesterday. he was wearing one of the

plastic wrist bands, hot pink supporting breast cancer. they are fighting for women at this point. we saw early this week a poll that showed at least this individual poll showed that likely female voters in swing states are kind of tied up. this is something that if true, which the obama campaign will dispute is something that will be pretty alarming for the president. we saw yesterday as he campaigned in ohio and iowa, he seized on comments that mitt romney made during the debate. mitt romney was trying to make the point that he made it a priority to hire women for his cabinet as he was massachusetts governor but he ordered up binders of women and president obama seized up on that yesterday. take a listen. >> we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented young women ready to learn and teach in these fields right now. >> the idea that he have to go ask where a qualified woman was, he should have come to my house. he didn't need a binder.

>> so you can see the democratic ticket trying to get all they can out of this. mitt romney for his part, his campaign putting out a new ad, they're also trying to woo women. trying to cut into president obama's margins. this ad tries to soften the stance rhetorically, his anti-abortion stance. he said yesterday as he campaigned that he's really trying to say -- he's really trying to report an economic message for women saying that president obama hasn't done enough. he said that president obama is running on fumes and he's not articulating a message for the next -- or really articulating a vision for what he wants to do for the next four years. >> all right. thank you. >> i should say that all the reporting in boston right now saying that mitt romney did not actually order up the binders full of women. he didn't ask for them as he said in the debate, they were provided by a commission during the transition there. so he may have had that story -- >> by an independent, right? >> quarter past the hour now. we want to get you up to date on

all the other headlines. >> a foiled terror blot, a 21-year-old man is accused of trying to bonl the federal reserve bank. he is kanzi innafis. >>. a big loss for the state of alabama and the controversial immigration law. the same federal appeals court that struck down parts of the law in august denied the state's request for a new hearing. alabama had called the court's summer ruling erroneous. they made it a crime for illegal aliens to work and to rent property to them. they call the law illegal and immoral. angelina jolie donated $50,000 to the education of

girls in pakistan. she made it in the name of the young girl shot in the head for promoting education for girls. she is fighting for her life in a hospital in britain. >> thank you. it is now 16 minutes after the hour. time to get an early read. your local news that is making national headlines. first up from florida's gainesville sun. a gainesville man is under arrest accused of operating a black market out of his home. a federal indictment allege that's he illegally imported fossils from mongolia then turned around and he sold them on the market. mongolian government accuses him of taking the bones from a site which is against the law in mongolia. they like to protect their fossils. >> so much for school spirit from the "dallas morning news" and our affiliate wfaa. no one in texas can ever remember a marching band being ejected from a football game. but that is exactly what happened tuesday night when a referee ordered the hudson

middle school band to stop playing. he said they were too loud. he even threw a penalty flag, threatened to keep penalizing the hudson football team. so the band left the field before halftime. it turns out the ref wasn't far behind. district officials ordered him to leave the field as well. he has been banned from future games and band members have also received an apology. >> turn down that music. that muse sick too loud. >> we'll have to ask how old he is. coming up, a closer look at mitt romney's tax plan. do the numbers add up? new analysis after the break. l♪ ♪ playing a lone hand ♪ my life begins today ♪ ♪ fly by night away from here ♪ ♪ change my life again ♪ ♪ fly by night, goodbye my dear ♪ ♪ my ship isn't coming ♪ and i just can't pretend oww! ♪ [ male announcer ] careful, you're no longer invisible

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minding your business this morning. the tax policy center, they've been big this presidential election. they're out with a new analysis of governor mitt romney's tax plan. the verdict, probably not good news for the romney campaign. >> before we get right into what this new report says, remind us what romney's plan is. >> he promised to lower tax rates by 20% for everyone. across the board tax cuts by 20%. how he would pay for it, cap tax deductions and generate revenue through economic growth. the campaign said again and again and mitt romney said in the most recent debate we can make the math work. don't worry about it. i'm going to lower taxes for everyone. the economy is going to grow because my policies. and you're going to be able to have a lower tax rate. it's not going to blow up the

deficit. this is something new and specific he told us about in the debate tax policy center scored. listen. >> in terms of bringing down deductions, one way of doing that is to say everybody gets a -- i'll pick a number -- $25,000 worth of deductions and credits. decide which ones to use. your home mortgage interest deduction, charity, child tax credit, so forth. you can use those as part of fill in that bucket of deductions. but your rate comes down and the burden also comes down on you for one more reason. and that is every middle income taxpayer pays no interest on interest, capital gains or dividends. >> so the tax policy center, sort of the arbitor of scoring the candidates' plans, this is what they say. they say the new estimates suggest that romney will need to do much more than capping itemized deductions to pay for the roughly $5 trillion in rate cuts and other tax benefits he

has proposed. that is robertson williams, the tax policy center senior fellow. let's talk about why the tax policy center says that the tax plan falls short. if you repeal all itemized deductions, assuming 20% income tax rate cut and repeal of the amt, you raise $2 trillion over 10 years. if you have a deduction cap at $17,000, you're going to generate revenue of $1.7 trillion. $25,000, you'll have revenue of $1.3 trillion. you get the picture. the lower cap affects more people. so it raises more revenue. but you don't get to the $5 trillion. >> there's the math right there. >> but the campaign, and i should point out the campaign as they said many times, the romney campaign's response is saying that this -- these researchers inserted their own assumption nooin order to make a biassed conclusion. they said we can make this work. the scorers got it wrong. >> they keep adding assumptions.

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targeting new york. a terrorist caught trying to carry out an attack near ground zero. dominating the debate. both sides claim the upper hand in terms of how long and how much. our next door neighbor

scientists discover an earth sized planet close to our solar system. seriously? welcome back to "early start." happy to have you with us. >> good news. it is 28 minutes after the hour right now. we're hoping to learn more today about the young man from bangladesh accused of plotting to bomb the federal resrserve b in new york. he was majoring in cyber security at southeast missouri university where he studied from january through may of this year. he's now charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. >> nafis parked a van outside a bank packed with 1,000 pounds of dummy explosives. they were provided been an undercover agent and' tempted to detonate it. he was motivated by al qaeda. suzanne candiotti joins us with more on this still developing story. walk us through exactly what happened and how authorities were actually also able to

uncover this plot. >> it's a very good question. they had their eye on him very long time, they say. and to summarize it, he was at school then moved to new york. he got on facebook, social media. he reached out to people that prosecutors say he thought could help him. to destroy america and wreck the economy. he gets on facebook and connects with someone who turns out to be working for the fbi. and that's when authorities set up this elaborate sting. and so they said he set about selecting a target, at one time even mentioned president obama. but then quickly moved on to some other landmarks in new york city. here's police commissioner ray kelly. >> he comes here with, again, the purpose of committing some sort of jihad here in the united states. he goes to the new york stock exchange. he sees there is significant security there.

s shifts his target to the federal reserve bank. >> and, of course, the federal reserve bank, home to the largest supply of gold bouillon. and if this had been an a actual bomb, he could have killed a lot of people, authorities say. >> they had a lot of information on tape, his notes, including a videotape he made on his way to blow up the bank so we thought? >> prosecutors said he wanted to pull over to a hotel and asked to make a suicide tape which reads in part, "i just want something big, something very big that will shake the whole country and will make muslims one step closer to run the whole world." scary stuff. >> so is he giving us all these details. you know, the fbi has been following him. why didn't they make an earlier arrest? why wait until the 11th hour? >> it's not uncommon in the investigations to try to follow it through to see how far it will go. one thing the fbi always wants to do is to see are you working with other people? who else might he reach out to? and they are satisfied at this time that he was working by himse

himself. that's what prosecutors say. as far as where he lived in his old neighborhood in queens, no one seems to know much about this young man. as you said, just a 21-year-old. >> you look at his picture, he looks like a baby. he looks so unbelievably young. >> it seems like a movie to me. they follow the guys who they think have a bomb in their vehicle to the point where they are going to blow it up. it is unbelievable. >> he made that phone call. that phone call would have triggered the bombs, right? >> it would have. and that's when they busted him. authorities say it's like the 15th plot since 9/11 that would have targeted new york city unsuccessfully again. >> suzanne candiotti, thank you. a guilty plea from an iranian american charging to kill the saudi ambassador to the united states. he admitted in court he conspired with members of iran's military to formulate his plot. prosecutors say his scheme unraveled when he tried to recruit a mexican drug cartel to bomb a washington restaurant where the ambassador frequently dined. he wound up meeting with an

undercover agent instead. >> cuba state run media released the first statement from fidel castro in four months. but no new video. rumors have been circulating about the former president's health. he hasn't been seen in public for more than six months. a lot of people are asking a lot of questions. in the published statement, the 86-year-old castro praised graduates from the institute of medical sciences. president obama spoke longer but mitt romney said more in tuesday night's presidential debate on long island. it was a bitter showdown. when you break down minute by minute, the president spoke for 44:04. that's 3:14 longer than his republican rival. but when it comes to words, romney is on top. the gop nominee spoke 7,984 words. seriously, during the 90 miff debate. that is 478 more words than the president spoke. the same phenomenon occurred at the first debate in denver.

>> two thoughts here, did romney use really short words? two, who is the poor intern counting one, two -- anyway. thank you to that. >> fascinating. >> so what's it like for a spouse watching these high pressure debates from the sidelines? first lady michelle obama interviewed on "live with kelly and michael" says she has to resist the urge for a shoutout. >> i compared it to the olympic parents watching their kid on that balance beam. you know? lots of clinching. >> do you ever go -- >> yeah, i do. >> i was sitting next to somebody -- at this debate and i was kind of moving around and but, you know, they really caution you to be quiet. i try to follow the rules so i don't get in trouble. >> you have to be conscious because the camera is always on you. i can imagine in your going get

him baby. get him. that's what i'm talking about. that's my man. i know. i call it like i see it. >> fantastic. that's a true moment right there. that is my man. >> the entire michelle obama interview airs on friday. >> that was funny. all right. 34 minutes past the hour. three little words from the debate that opened a whole big can of worms. >> i went to a number of women's groups and said can you help us find folks and they brought us binders full of women. >> is that four words? >> yes. >> coming up, how both candidates are trying to win over women voters. now, that's what i call a test drive. silverado! the most dependable, longest lasting, full-size pickups on the road. so, what do you think? [ engine revs ]

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you're looking at washington, d.c., our nation's capit capitol. it is 57 degrees. meanwhile, today the candidates are on the trail again with 19

days to go until election day. it is close. president obama, mitt romney and their running mates spent the day trashing their opponents, explaining how the other was wrong, the wrong choice for a certain key demographic. they're actually women. >> we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women ready to learn and teach in these fields right now. >> why is it that there are 3.6 million more women in poverty today than when the president took office? this president has failed america's women. >> what i can't understand is how he has gotten in this 1950s time warp in terms of women. >> we had a discussion about how women are faring in this economy last night. 5.5 million women are still struggling for work in this economy. >> you know, you can tell something is going on when every single one of the candidates is

on the same message. it is a critical demographic to be sure. women, there are more than half the electoral. and with the president obama's lead among women seeming to evaporate over the last month, it is still a group very up for grabs. let's bring in eric ericsson from redstate.com and a former senior adviser to hillary clinton. it's clear in the polls that at least somewhat maybe completely mitt romney has closed a lot of the gender gap here. do you think the president was able to turn that around at the debate the other night? >> i do, john. i actually don't believe the polls that say that gender gap has completely closed. but i hope, and i know that president is running as if he is five points behind with women. i think that important thing here is to underscore the fact that it's actually his campaign that is pushing the policies that help women. i don't think mitt romney helped himself in the debate two nights ago when he actually talked about the famous binders full of

women. even though it was a slip of the tongue, it betrays the lack of understanding, the lack of even a comfort level, john, when talking about issues that are important to women like equality of pay. he didn't even answer the question. and when he talked about i had binders full of women story, the story was even wrong. and i think it's important to underscore that as he was even telling the story that isn't even true, the binders of women actually went looking for him. during his administration in massachusetts, the percentage of women in appointed positions during his administration actually declined. so these are important issues to women. and the obama campaign is going to continue to underscore these. >> i do want to come back to how he got that binder. it is in dispute right now. before we get to that, i want to talk to eric s this a playing field that is dangerous for mitt romney? you heard the candidates talking about women, the women's vote, how important women are in the election. is mitt romney comfortable with these discussions do you think, eric? >> oh, i absolutely think so.

the issue is that the democrats want to talk about what matters to women in the form of birth control and barack obama telling women they're qualified to teach and he is telling them he's going to help them find jobs and help them find kids jobs. into rez brilliant democratic talking points from the dnc. but the fact of the matter is they're not really true. yet the president of the united states told people in the debate the other night that jobs aren't coming back. so the democrats would rather focus on this binders full of women comment which was a cute comment. i would dispute maria on the facts of the binder. mitt romney is fine here. look, he closed the gap with women. if you look at where john mccain was in 2008, john mccain was 12.5 with women and three points behind with mitt. right now, mitt romney is tied with women and ten points ahead with men. that's bad for barack obama. that's why he is focusing on big bird and planned parenthood. >> so you did bring up, you said you dispute the idea of the binder. let's talk about the binder here

and lay out what appear to be the facts here. we have a statement from the group that says it provided the binder, hopefully they put that on the screen here. this is from the group mass gap which is a nonpartisan group in massachusetts. prior to the 2002 gubernatorial election, mass gap approached the campaigns of shannon o'brien and mitt romney and asked them both to commit to make best efforts to insure that number of women in appointed state positions is appropriate. now mass gap says they then put together this binder and they say it was a big bind we are women's names there. they provided them to mitt romney once he won the election. he never asked for them, they say, as he claimed in the debate. they just handed him the binder. maria, is that what you're talking about? >> yeah, that's exactly right, john. for him to go before the debate audience and say that he was so -- that he was so worried that there were no qualified women applying for positions in his cabinet that he pro actively went looking for them and then we actually hear from the actual

group that put together these binders full of women that it's not true. again, i think it betrays the -- eric, it's the truth. did you just not read the statement that was on the screen? i mean this underscores what the republicans are really trying to do which is obfuscate the record. >> that is such a good talking point and a flat out lie. >> i actually want to go -- i'd like to go back to something that eric said in terms of democrats pushing women's issues. women's issues are economic issues. one of the things the president did brilliantly -- >> he's not pushing them. >> -- is connect the women's health care and equal work to pocketbook issues for women. >> eric gets the last word here. >> it's phenomenal to hear democrats, including maria to say that contraception is an economic issue for women when there are five million of them

out of work and looking for jobs. there are bigger issues here. they just want to rally the base because they have three weeks and suddenly the president finds himself behind. >> 53% of the electorate. >> thank you both for joining us. as i said, you can tell by the fact that all the candidates are talking about this issue that it is a big issue on the trail. at least right now. >> it is 45 minutes after the hour now. we're counting down to the final crucial presidential debate which will focus on foreign policy. cnn's live coverage from boca raton, florida, begins monday night at 7:00 eastern time. the world next door, relatively speaking. coming up, a planet the same size -- the same size as earth discovered closer than ever before. [ male announcer ] what inspires us to build safer automobiles? people like anna and david, who are always worried about... tonito. ♪ tonito.

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it is now 49 minutes after the hour. let's get you up to date with the headlines. >> we're starting to piece together information about quazi nafis. he's accused of plotting to bomb the federal reserving bank of new york. nafis was in the united states on a student visa. he studied cyber security at southeast missouri state university. we're following this still developing story all morning. lance armstrong's legacy taken another hit.

nike cut him loose citing insurmountable evidence that armstrong was doping. another personal sponsor anheuser-busch followed suit. it comes after armstrong stepped down as chairman of the livestrong foundation saying he wanted to spare the cancer charity any negative effects of allegations concerning his cycling career. the white house is calling out the big guns in the homestretch of the campaign. bill clinton and bruce springsteen will be appearing together at an obama rally today. the boss officially endorsed the president yesterday. and scientists coming up big in the hunt for planets. a planet the same size as earth in a nearby star system. it's the closest one found outside our solar system. close, of course, is relative. i mean it's really close, 24 trillion miles away. the newly discovered planet is some four light years or 23 trillion -- >> it's like your neighbors, 23 trillion miles away. >> it's being described as a

furnace hot surface. so nobody lives there. >> severe weather from st. louis to the deep south is moving east this morning. rob marciano in the weather center. i'm going to be able to speak in a moment here. >> i'll give you a little break. >> thank you. >> another cup of coffee, you'll be fine. >> good morning. we have storms that are rolling across the deep south. this is the same line that rolled through st. louis yesterday, strudisrupted the nl and the same system that brought rain eventually into detroit. that game has been postponed until this afternoon. here is the front pushing slowly to the east. we have threat for severe weather. southern cal, another hot day to day. we had a flare-up of a couple fires in the l.a. and santa barbara area. but here's what we expect severe weather from buffalo back through parts of the carolinas. could see large hail and damaging winds. maybe an isolated tornado. we saw reports of four tornadoes yesterday. the backside of this thing has tremendous amount of wind with it, straight line winds.

gusts 60 to 70 miles an hour across the northern tier. behind it is slightly cooler. temperatures in the 40s in minneapolis. not terribly cold. 55 in chicago. 67 degrees you'll feel the humidity today in new york city and eventually we'll see rain and thunderstorms with this system as it pushes off to the east. i could use a cup of coffee myself. >> i said that as you were speaking. you're suffering from my same disease this morning. >> he did bring uz weaths weath a huge backside though. >> ahead on "easterl"early star details behind a 21-year-old student involved in alleging to blow up the federal reserve. we'll be joined by former cia officer peter brooks. also, a zoo takes down halloween decoration that's people complained the faceless ghosts hanging from a tree that they resembled lynchings. plus, the incredible results of the most extensive face transplant that has ever been performed.

you are going to be shocked. this is the before picture. and the next picture is a bit graphic. this is after a shooting. this gentleman was left without most of his face and then this. this is the young man after his face transplant. can you believe it? we are talking to the lead surgeon live on "early start" in the next hour. >> they're truly amazing. >> remarkable. >> first, why this jug of 20-year-old expired jug of barbecue sauce sold for $10,000. ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi® card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts. more events. more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with a citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ]

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welcome back to "early start," everyone. it is 56 minutes after the hour right now. we're taking a look at what is trending on the world wide web. >> rarefied air jordan memorabilia. a man from chicago bought a jug of mcjordan barbecue sauce for almost $10,000, folks. a north dakota man who once owned a mickey d's franchise had the sauce in his basement for 20 years. what did he do? he put it on ebay. it was the key ingredient that mcdonald's sold back in the time. the sauce, listen to this, has an expiration date of december 1992. the seller says he hopes the buyer doesn't try to eat it. >> $10,000, that's a bargain. well done. >> ashton's move to "2 1/2 men" is paid off. he made an estimated $24 million between 2011 and 2012.

nowhere near the 40 million charlie sheen made the year before. man, i'm in the wrong profession. if i had only did unfunny sitcoms, i'd be rolling in cash right now. >> hugh laurie was second, he made $18 million. ray romano also earned $18 million. >> what do they all have in common? >> they're all dudes. >> that's right. late night last night, stewart and kimble digging into the binders full of women. >> i brought us binders full of women. >> my guess is they did not refer to what they present the as whole binders full of women. but, perhaps referred to it as well organized collection of qualified resumes, but hey! binder of women, book of broads, notebook and nipples, whatever! >> he said he had binders full

of women which is a little creepy. something they find in a serial killer's basement at the end of a "law & order," right? but policy toward women is clear. we have to alphabetize them. maybe for mitt romney that's the closest thing he ever got to looking at a dirty magazine? >> okay. "early start" continues right now. bomb plot foiled. how the fbi says they caught a man trying to blow up new york's financial nerve center just blocks from ground zero. scary for all the wrong reasons. a halloween display that some say looks like lynching. and the unlikely hero of st. louis, a rookie steps up for an injured star leading his team to a big play-off victory!

>> that's huge hit. good morning to you. welcome to "early start." we're happy you're with us this morning. we're going to begin this hour with a story still developing. the arrest of a young man from bangladesh charged with plotting to bomb the charged with plotting to bomb the federal reserve bank here in new york. his name is quazi nafis, he was majoring at southwest missouri university where he studied earlier this year. >> authoritiy ies arrested him yesterday in a sting operation. nafis allegedly parked a car outside the bank that was packed by a thousand pounds of dummy explosives and he attempted to detonate it. prosecutors point to al qaeda at his motivation. national correspondent susan candiotti has been on this story since it broke yesterday. good morning to you. can you walk us through what exactly happened here? >> according to prosecutors in all these court papers, apparently he had this plan for months and months and months. so starting back in the

summertime, the fbi reached out to him, made contact via facebook, when he allegedly came up with this plan, according to prosecutors, to destroy america, take down the united states, economically. and they said he settled on a landmark, the federal reserve bank. here's police commissioner ray kelly. >> he comes here with the, again, the avowed purpose of committing some sort of jihad here in the united states. he goes to the new york stock exchange, he sees there's significant security there, and he shifts his target to the federal reserve bank. >> now, according to the criminal complaint, at one point, he wanted to target a high-ranking u.s. official. sources tell me he had mentioned president obama, but it wasn't operational at any point. he settled on the physical target, the federal reserve bank. >> so much of the information they're getting from videotape, from writings that he did, including a videotape he made on his way to what he thought would

be the explosion. >> all this culminated yesterday. they were on their way to the reserve bank. authorities say he asked to pull over, went inside a hotel, asked them to pull out a camera, where they allegedly made this suicide tape. and it reads in part, "i just want something big, something very big that will shake the whole country and will make muslims one step closer to run the whole world." so he set out to destroy america. he failed. >> well, that's the good news. i want to bring in chief business correspondent, ali shellv velshi, and ali, you were there on monday. >> i haven't been to the federal reserve in years and i happened to be there on monday. and in fact, i went in through an alternate entrance and kept having to go through security. something on me just kept on triggering security. and i go through airports all the time. i generally know what i've got and it just wouldn't stop. finally they checked me out and

realized there was nothing wrong. so security -- it doesn't feel like a fortress, but it is one of the 12 federal reserve banks in the united states and it is the most important one. it is the one, when we talk about lowering and raising interest rates, that means the feds buys and sells bonds from banks. it happens over there. it's also got the world's biggest gold vault. it's 80 feet below street level, probably more gold than ft. knox. at last count, in october, there were about 7,700 tons of gold there. it's kept for treasuries and other major, you know, global operations. the fed charges them a fee to keep it in a secure place. there's a lot of security there. it doesn't seem like an obvious target for someone to go there. and by the way, i'm very interested in the new york fed. i think 9.9 new yorkers couldn't tell you what it was or where it was. it's an unusual target, as symbolic as it is. >> a specific target for this guy who knew how the financial system work. ali, do you think there was an increased level of security when

you were there? >> no, there was no sense of urgency. it was somebody's job to make sure nobody gets through there without all the metal on them being checked. the machines tuned to be quite sensitive. more so than it seems to be when i go through an airport detector. but it was secure. once you're in, it feels like the new york stock exchange. it doesn't feel like there's a great deal of security around, but you know there are cameras all around the place and you know there's security, but it's a low-key place. there's a trading operation there, there's the vault, and the president of the fed sits there. also, by the way, that's where the big boardroom is where they all met in september of 2008 when they were deciding the fate of the banks. that's where all those deals about the banks were made. >> we're curious about the security and keep on getting back to it, because as susan pointed out, this fbi investigation has been going on for a very long time. so when you look at the security issue, and before 9/11 versus now, was it beefed up to that point? because you were there before and there now. we're curious about whether they

beefed it up because they knew -- >> that's a good question. i didn't frequent the new york fed before. the new york stock exchange, just down the road, has changed dramatically. you can't get anywhere close to it. you see a car there, you can't do that at the new york stock exchange. you see the police officers posted in front of the fed. they have side arms, not heavy weaponry. >> you said nine out of ten people don't know what the new york fed does. this guy clearly did. he said, i came up to this conclusion that targeting america's economy is the most efficient way to draw the path of oblit ration of america. most active by volume and most influential of 12 federal reserve banks. >> that's pretty amazing. >> he knew a lot about it. >> if it had been a real plot with real explosives, he could have done serious damage. >> but if you're trying to ruin

assets, there's cash in there as well, and gold, and it's a pretty solid building. you can see. the vault is extra solid. so it's a strange thing. i'm not sure that symbolically, people would say, oh, my god, the guy got some gold, or blew it up. but he definitely knew it was important. it is a very important place, and it's very important to the financial system. it is, also, by the way, the authority that regulates the financial services and the banks. so it's crucially important. he had the right idea about how important it was. i just don't think most people do. >> well, timing is everything, ali, so we're glad that you were there. >> i'm glad it didn't happen. >> reporter: thank you and susan candiotti, thank you as well. and coming up, peter brooks will walk us through the plot and the sting. the confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attack speaking out in court, lecturing his military tribunal. at a pre-trial hearing at guantanamo yesterday, khalid

sheikh mohammed accused the u.s. of killing many more people in the name of national security than he is charged with murdering. mohammad and four others are accused of recruiting, funding, and training the september 11th hijackers. they are all facing the death penalty. four more people have died in the outbreak of fungal meningitis, for a total of 19 deaths. and federal health officials report that 217 people across 15 states have been sickened. the outbreak has been traced to a contaminated pain steroid made by a massachusetts pharmaceutical company and federal officials have opened an investigation after rating the company's facility. that was on tuesday. in other health news here, officials the in north carolina investigating a deadly outbreak of e. coli infection that's been traced to a county fair. at least 61 people, including three dozen children, have become ill. state health officials now saying one child has actually died. officials believe the source of the outbreak is the petting zoo, as e. coli's is often spread from animals to humans. i go to a lot of these petting zoos with my children and they

always say, wash your hands immediately. the st. louis cardinals beating the san francisco giants last night, 3-1 in the third game of the national league championship series. rookie matt carpenter was the unlikely hero, hitting a two-run homer after replacing injured star carlos beltran. thecards lead the series two games to one. game four tonight in st. louis. you going to watch it? >> it's on late. i go to bed very, very early. the cards are ahead of the series but the loss of beltran could be huge. without him, the cards' chances could be -- >> you're going to stay up and watch it. meanwhile, mother nature pitching a shutout in detroit. game four of the alcs was delayed and finally postponed. >> still a chance. >> probably good news for the yankees. the decision was made to preserve the integrity of an uninterrupted game. the tigers and yankees will try again this afternoon at coamerica park. meantime, alex rodriguez was not

in the lineup again. a-rod held court with reporters, addressing questions about his uncertain future with the team. and i want to issue a correction. >> thank you. >> last hour i said that a-rod threw a baseball with his phone number to some ladies isn't the stands before -- >> that was incorrect. >> no, he actually threw a baseball and asked these women to put their phone numbers on it. it really changes the whole story. just to be clear. a-rod facing at of questions -- >> he did not throw his phone number up, they threw their phone numbers down. there we have it. that was a fact check. nine minutes past the hour. the question today, will there be baseball in detroit tonight? my poor yankees. >> binders, baseballs, as long as you get the information in hand. that's what's most important. >> spoken like a true dude. >> you know, i'm not terribly disappointed that the game got rained out last night, because this way i can watch it this afternoon and not have to get the news in the morning. hopefully it will be good news. detroit is going to be okay. st. louis as well.

rough night last night. the rains didn't arrive until almost 10:00 in the evening, so they probably would have had the rain around the fourth or fifth inning. severe weather today across parts of the carolinas. right now, rain around the deep south, including atlanta, back through parts of alabama and down through mobile and new orleans seeing some rough weather. this was the same line that came through st. louis. also dropped some hail and some storms that created a few tornadoes across the mississippi, some injuries across northwest mississippi. probably won't have the same today, but we will have the threat for see prg severe weather across parts of the east coast today. mainly from buffalo all the way down to the carolinas. the left side of this, on the backside, gusts 60 to 70 miles an hour. it's going to be windy and somewhat cooler behind this system. temperatures will be in the 40s and 50s. 55 in chicago. 75 in atlanta. 84, still toasty with santa ana winds blowing in los angeles. john, zoraida, back up to you. >> thanks so much, rob marciano in atlanta.

hope you get to watch that game today and hope it ends badly for you. they put the spirit and spirituality. coming up next, the chapter for some cheerleaders in a court fight over bible verses. ♪ keys, keys, keys, keys, keys. ♪ well, he's not very handsome

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a court order of a high-profile free speech case in texas is expected to expire today. cheerleaders at one school were barred by the government from using banners with bible verses. they sued and got a temporary restraining order against the ban which ends today.

but the squad and their supporters are expected to continue their fight. the st. louis zoo is taking down its halloween display. take a look. these hanging ghosts were designed with black faces so they can't be seen at night, but customers complained, calling the display racist because it looked too much like a lynching to them. >> wow. minding your business this morning, the tax policy center is out with a up in analysis of governor mitt romney's tax plan. and the verdict may be not good news for the romney campaign. so before we get into what this new report says, remind us, christine, what this plan actually is. the romney plan. >> governor romney wants to lower tax rates for everyone by 20% across the board. lower taxes for everyone. you've heard him on the stump saying the middle class would pay lower taxes under a president obama. how would he pay for that? he would cap tax deductions and generate revenue through economic growth. how would he cap those tax deductions? how many deductions, and how would you pay for all those tax cuts? that is what budget experts have been trying to figure out. this is what mitt romney said in the debate that gave a little

more detail about this capping deductions. >> in terms of bringing down deductions, one way of doing that would be to say that everyone gets, i'll pick a number, $25,000 of deductions and credits. and you can decide which ones to use. your home interest mortgage deduction, charity, child tax credit and so forth, you can use those as part of filling that bucket of deductions. but your rate comes down, and the burden also comes down on you for one more reason. and that is because every middle income taxpayer will no longer pay any tax on dividends or capital gains. >> the tax policy center looking more closely at this plan and the idea of capping these deductions. and the tpc says this is not the final word, because they still need more details, but these new estimates suggest that romney will need to do much more than capping itemized deductions fay for the roughly $5 trillion in rate cuts and other tax benefits he has proposed. here is why the tax policy

center says he falls short. if you repeal all itemized deductions and you assume a 20% income tax rate cut and a repeal of the amt, you get $2 trillion over ten years. $2 trillion over ten years. let's look at some of these caps that have been floated around in various debates and interviews by the romney campaign. a $17,000 deduction cap would raise you about $1.7 trillion. you can see there, a $50,000 deduction cap, $763 billion. a lower cap would affect for people, raise more revenue, the math doesn't get there. >> surely the romney team doesn't agree with this? >> no, they do no. they say they have reached biased conclusions based on faulty assumptions. but the tax policy center is very clear. they say, with more details, we would have more details to score, but just so far, there aren't nuenough details to figu out how to pay for the $5 trillion. and new data showing the average

student loan debt is close to $27,000. that's basically a record high. this is from the project on student debt. these new numbers, same old trends, students are borrowing to the hilt still to go to college. and we fact checked a mitt romney comment in the debate, that more than half the people graduating don't get a job. be very careful with your career choice and your student loan choice. >> i read that this morning and thought, gosh, i hope that's not something she's going to end with. >> you did? >> i did. >> you know me so well. >> it's empowering, a lot of kids don't know how much that debt is. some kids are still spending this money to live in college. anything you can do, a state school over a private school, anything you can do to keep the debt down. >> no, the information is always good. thank you, christine. so a host of new products are all geared towards making travel easier from a suitcase that follows you to a pillow you wear on your head. >> christine is back!

actually, she never left. >> so when you pay off all that student debt and get a really great job and you're traveling around the world, this is what you need to know. new products to streamline your travel experience. there's something called a new baseline suitcase, it expands to let you pack in more, you're seeing the video of it there, and then it compresses to fit in the overhead bin. you used to just sit on the suitcase and jump on it until it closed. now they have technology that does it. and you have the trip sound suitcase. it can play eight hours of music before it needs to recharge and it can also help you power up your phone. it cannot help your kids do their homework. and if having to grapple with your luggage at all is a problem, never fear, you may soon be able to get your hands on this -- this is called the hop suitcase. it follows you using signals from your cell phone. it's like a little puppy. >> i have to have one of those now. >> if the signal is lost, the hop then locks itself.

and check out these two new items to take with you on the road. the sony personal cinema system that john is wearing. >> look at the side view. it hooks in and allows you to feel like you're watch everything in your own -- >> i can't see a thing. >> well, if you were plugged in, you would seeing like 150-inch screen and 2 and 3-d. >> very cool. somebody fell over, they were so excited! >> this thing is called the ostrich pillow. you wear this on your head and it fights jet lag, helping you nap anywhere you are. a train, an airport, even your desk. >> so your face comes out through here. >> you're not going to fall asleep because everyone will be laughing at you. >> can i have this for my halloween costume somehow? heres. >> the ostrich. >> there is news you can use. >> i like this little gadget a lot. thanks for that. >> i want the, personally, the suitcase that follows you around. >> that would be fun. >> if only my kids would follow

me so dutifully in the airport. so they are four little words from the debate that opened up a whole, big can of worms. >> four words. >> four words. >> i went to a number of women's groups and said, can you help us find folks, and they brought us whole binders full of women. >> binders full of women. >> you corrected me earlier, i said three words earlier. preparations don't count. coming up, trying to win over women voters. where others fail, droid powers through. introducing the new droid razr maxx hd by motorola. now more than ever droid does.

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day trashing their opponent, explaining allow the other was the wrong choice for a very key demographic -- women. >> we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women, ready to learn and teach in these fields right now. >> why is it that there are 3.6 million more women in poverty today than when the president took office? this president has failed america's women. >> what i can't understand is how he has gotten in this sort of 1950s time warp, in terms of women. >> we had a discussion about how women are faring in this economy last night. 5.5 million women are still struggling for work in this economy. >> it is a critical demographic to capture. after all, women are more than half the electorate. and with much of president obama's large lead among women seeming to evaporate over the last month, still a group very

much up for grabs. so let's bring in our cnn contributors. we have erick erickson. he is the editor in chief of redstate.com and maria cardona is a former senior adviser to hillary clinton. before i get into politics here, i understand, erick, you've got some homemade monkey bread in the oven. you tweeting that out. >> we don't want to let it burn. >> we'll try to do this quickly. i want to start with maria, though. maria, there's a sense that romney had gained women in the first debate. we'll talk about those first few polls, the gallup poll and the pew poll. we're waiting for some good post-debate polls to see exactly where we stand now. women made up more than 53% of the electorate in 2008. this is a really important fight right now for president obama, isn't it? >> absolutely, it's critical, zoraida. and again, i'll say about these polls what i've said before, is that i don't believe that the gender gap is completely closed, but i hope that president obama is running as if he is five points behind. because that will continue to make him underscore his message,

that is, in fact, his policies that will help women to continue to do better in this economy. look, we created -- the president has created more than 5 million jobs, a lot of them for women. the unemployment rate has gone under now, 8%. a lot of that is helping women. and while republicans like to derisively call women's issues in terms of what democrats focus on, women's health care is a huge economic issue for women. romney wants to repeal obama care, which would take away preventative services for women, cancer screenings, breast cancer screenings, and all of those issues do affect women's pocketbooks. and then you have romney's binders for women, which underscore his lack of understanding of the whole issue, and then i'll just end it, he still can't even say whether he supports the equal pay for equal work act that president obama signed into law. i think that really underscores where he stands with women, and it's not a pretty picture. >> erick, i want to talk about

that equal pay for women. it was something that romney did not answer during that debate. do you think that that's going to hurt him with women? >> oh, lord, no. there are such bigger issues. the women pays women on his staff 18% less than the men on his staff. it's a nonissue. and in fact, the statistic the lady gave in the question was actually wrong. >> let's talk about the binders of women. because there's a lot of traction on those -- actually, it was four words. it wasn't romney who ordered them, it actually came from massachusetts government appointments project, mass gap, as it's known. in a statement, the group says they approached the romney campaign and his challenger before romney won the gubernatorial election. and it's up there on that screen. it says, "prior to 2003 gubernatorial election, massgap approached the campaigns of candidates shannon o'brien and mitt romney and asked them both to commit to make best efforts to ensure that the number of women in appointed state positions is proportionate." romney said last night, "i went

to a number of women's groups." were those statements untrue? >> no, they weren't untrue. romney did go to a number of women's groups. he also went to a number of his staffers to reach out to people. this one group has come out, interestingly, with the democratic party, it seems. the democrats are pushing this that he was somehow lying. >> but it's because of the choice of words. it's what he said, isn't it, erick? it's what he said. he said that he actually requested this. and what we're finding out is that he did not request it. >> but he -- no, no, no, listen to what you're saying. you're saying that he didn't request it from this group. mitt romney never said which groups he requested it from. but, seriously, cnn is going to focus on these four words over everything else? i mean, even the other networks this morning are laughing about this comment, saying it's unserious. and i think 19 days before the election, focusing on a binder full of women as opposed to the

unemployed and as opposed to the other data, it seems like such a silly issue to focus on right now. but if you want to, mitt romney said he went to groups. he didn't name the group. there were other groups. and the facts speak for themselves. he had a female lieutenant governor, he had more female cabinet members. >> let's talk about romney's policy of hiring women, it was actually worse than his predecessor. here's what local boston phoenix reporter told anderson cooper last night. let's listen. >> there were also some other issues aside from just those appointees. there were issues raised about his judicial appointees, 17 of his first 19 jung appointments were men, and then after some unfavorable press about that, he began appointing more women. certainly some of the most important positions, the people in charge of budget and transportation and business development, the ones that he was most concerned about, mostly went to men and mostly to men

who he had dealt with in his business career. >> so, erick, is that going to haunt romney? >> but his cabinet was majority women. no, it's not going to harm romney. this is such a nonsensical issue 19 days before the election. i mean, if the democrats want to play here, it suggests that they're trying to rally their base. they've given up on independent voters. and the polling suggests, look at cnn's own poll after the debate. romney did better with women. and while obama won overall in the superficial line, romney won with women and men. who can fix health care? romney won all those things. >> maria, i'm going to give you the final word here. >> but i think what's important to note is what eric said at the very beginning. which he even pushed aside the importance of equal pay for equal work. i think independent women would have a real problem with that. and let's talk about romney's record. the amount of women in his administration, again, declined while he was governor. and is it really possible that in 20 years of work in the corporate world, he didn't run

into any qualified women? that speaks volumes about the importance that he places on diversity of gender, i think diversity of any kind, and i think that's going to hurt him. >> maria cardona, erick erickson, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. and good luck with the monkey bread, erick. >> absolutely. 31 minutes past the hour. 11 years after 9/11, an alleged plot to take out a vital institution, located just blocks away. a former cia officer joins us, coming up. i'm a conservative investor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials.

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targeting new york. an alleged terrorist caught trying to carry out an attack right near ground zero. a former cia officer will join

us live. medical miracle. after a horrifying accident, doctors give a man a second chance with a brand-new face. the lead surgeon is going to join us live. our next-door neighbor. scientists discover an earth-sized planet really, really close in near terms, to our solar system. welcome back to "early start," everyone, i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. we're learning more this morning about an alleged terrorist plot foiled by the fbi. the target, the federal reserve bank of new york in lower manhattan. the suspect, a 21-year-old bangladeshi named quazi nafis. >> the fbi says he parked what he thought was a 1,000-pound explosive device right outside the federal reserve here in new york and tried to set it off. but the explosives were duds. it was all part of an elaborate fbi sting. new york city police say this was the 15th terror plot foiled since september 11th. >> investigators say -- >> this individual came here

with the express purpose of committing a terrorist act. he was motivated by al qaeda. so we see this threat as, you know, being with us for a long time to come. >> investigators say the public was never in any danger, at any point. nafis made his first appearance in court yesterday. so we would like to bring in peter brooks. he's a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. he is also currently a senior fellow with the heritage foundation. thank you so much for taking time to talk to us this morning. good morning to you. so this is the 15th terrorist plot foiled in new york city, this is since 9/11. where do you rank the seriousness of this one? >> well, it's obviously very serious, especially since it's the most recent. the threat is still with us. i mean, there have been 53 foiled terror plots in the united states since 9/11. in fact, some people consider what happened at ft. hood as an actual terrorist attack. so over 50 plots or attacks since 9/11. this is the most recent.

a young man, a college student came in on a legitimate visa to the united states. was inspired by al qaeda, especially anwar al awlaki and tried to blow up 1,000 pounds of explosives in downtown manhattan. >> the fbi also says nafis wanted to disrupt the elections and kill a high-ranking official here. does it seem like he had any real-life al qaeda connections or real-life al qaeda training or is this guy just a wannabe? >> i think "wannabe" is a good term there, john. he says he has contacts overseas with al qaeda. the fbi is telling us now they can't find at this point. he looked to find people here in the united states. fortunately, he stumbled upon some of our informants, on some of our officers, on our fbi agents and was not able to get very far. but the intent is what's concerning to me, especially so many years after 9/11 itself. now, al qaeda as an ideology is obviously still alive in the minds of some who want to harm

the united states. now, one of the things he really wanted to go after was the financial sector. not just the united states. i think even president obama may have been on his list of high-ranking officials. that's what press reports are saying. but he wanted to go after the financial district. once again, this is something that osama bin laden wanted to do. he always talked about that, going after the united states economy as an important target. >> well, let's deal with that. the fbi is actually releasing some information about his motivations. they quote him here. they say, i came up to this conclusion that targeting america's economy is the most efficient way to draw the path of obliteration of america. i decided to attack the federal reserve bank of new york which is by far the largest by assets, most active, by volume, and most influential of the 12 regional federal reserve banks. what kind of damage could this attack do, to the new york fed. >> think of 9/11, billions of trillions of dollars effect on the u.s. economy. the economy is struggling right

now. this certainly wouldn't have been helpful. but it's interesting to see that this young man was thinking about this. that it still exists as part of al qaeda's ideology. and this is something we really need to be thinking about. one of the things i'm really worried about is a cyberattack against our financial systems. and especially for the private sector, they need to be prepared here. obviously, this was a public sector sort of target, but that includes the economy and certainly the private sector as well and things like cyberare something that we need to be worried about. the next one may be attacking -- choosinging to via the internet as opposed to a van filled with explosives. >> peter brooks, we certainly appreciate your expertise this morning. now a senior fellow at the heritage foundation, thank you very much. >> thank you. it is 40 minutes after the hour right now. and you would not looking at him, but this man you're about to see suffereded a horribly disfigure accident, until doctors gave him a new face, literally. he had a face transplant. we'll go inside the amazing surgery with one of the surgeons who pulled this off coming up

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i am surrounded by brightness this morning. soledad o'brien joins us now with a look at what's ahead on "starting point." >> you guys have been talking about this brazen terror plot that was foiled. we've got some new details about the man who was accused of planning to blow up the federal reserve bank in manhattan. and the operation, too, that busted him. we'll get some insight from an expert, phil mudd, the former director of the cia counterterrorism center. and we'll chat with peter bergen about what exactly the risk was. and over pop-up food trucks, now there's a pop-up pop truck.

that's rachael ray and she's a celebrity chef, obviously. she has move ds from cooking to people to cooking for pets. we'll chat with her about her new project. and it is the debate comment that seems to be bouncing back to mitt romney, the birnds full of women. you guys were talking about it yesterday. an internet sensation now. we're going to meet the women who created the tumblr blog and talk a little bit about what the impact has been on the election as well. >> we've been talking about that a lot this morning as well. we have a terrible story in north carolina. one child has died in an outbreak of e. coli that has been traced to a county fair. at least 63 others, including three dozen children have become ill. the source of the outbreak is the petting zoo, as e. coli is often spread from animals to humans. considerable files on alleged boy scout sex abusers are being made public today. the so-called perversion files identify more than 1,200 boy scout leaders and volunteers

from across the country, banned from scouting after being suspected of pedophilia and related offenses. the documents cover a period from 1965 to 1985. bill and the boss, stumping for barack obama. former president bill clinton and rocker bruce springsteen scheduled to appear together today at an obama rally in parma, ohio. the president will not be there. the boss officially endorsed president obama yesterday. and astronomers are buzzing about a newly discovered planet, the closest one ever seen outside of our solar system. >> look how bright. >> they say the planet is extremely earth-like in both sad and mass, but sadly, too hot to support life. so cancel your travel plans. scientists say its existence suggests there may be more planets to be discovered in the neighboring star systems. >> astronomers have got a lot of work. coming up, the incredible results of the most extensive face transplant that has ever been performed. wait until you see the pictures. oh, you get them. this is the before picture, and the next picture is a big

graphic. this is right after a shooting, folks. this guy was left without most of his face. and then this. this is the young man after his face transplant. we are talking to the lead surgeon, coming up next.

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all right, welcome back, everyone. this morning we are getting a new look at a man whose face was completely replaced by surgery. take a look. this is richard lee norris seven months after a marathon surgery

that replaced his jaw, teeth, and tongue to repair damage from a devastating gun accident. we're about to show you the extensive damage he suffered. here's the comparison. before surgery, then about a week after the face transplant, and now seven months after the surgery. this is amazing. for years, norris had left his house wearing a mask to avoid stares and comments on his face and now he says no one even gives him a second look. the surgery came after ten years of research at the university of maryland medical center. it was funded by the office of naval research and the department of defense, who hopes the to serve veterans wounded in action. dr. eduardo rodriguez led the face transplant team. he is the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the r. adams kalie shock trauma center at the university of maryland medical center. doctor, this was a 36-hour-long surgery, essentially reconstructing the entire face here. talk about this surgery and what was the most difficult thing for you and your team? >> well, it's an amazing

procedure. however, we had rehearsed and practiced for quite some time with our small unit of surgeons, really an elite group of individuals, with specialized training, not only in plastic surgery, but also in cranial facial surgery and microsurgery, which are all the elements to achieve success. also, we had the wonderful opportunity through the generous donation of a family and our relationship with our organ procurement organization to do a practice run. so by the time richard's operation came about, we were ready to really succeed at every level. we used every innovative practice that we could, intraoperably, to sure transfer of all the bones, transfer of all the tissues, and do intraoperative measuring to make sure every millimeter of tissue was viable. and everything went as planned without a hitch. and for that note, richard is doing great. we've only had a minor bump in the road, a small episode of mild rejection at about one month, but since then, he's done

great. he's a superb patient, he works incredibly hard. he's practicing with speech therapy three times a week, physical therapy, really a committed individual and he is the real hero of this story. and of course, due to the generous donation of this incredible family. >> you say he's been undergoing speech therapy. what does he have to relearn after the surgery? >> well, he -- when you get a new tongue and you get new jaws and he hadn't had teeth in 15 years, you put all of that together, you have to get used to working with that. now his tongue is moving appropriately. his tongue meets the front of his teeth, so he can pronounce the ls and ts, something he hadn't done in a long time, and learning how to eat. all of that is progressing wonderfully. if we look at richard now, he's met every milestone and pet all of our expectations. he works hard to achieve success. >> are there limitations to what he will be able to do? >> right now, we don't see any. >> oh, my gosh. >> before he was being fed through a feeding tube in his

stomach. he's currently eating everything by his mouth. and i don't see any major limitations, as far as what we've been able to achieve technically. obviously, these patients need to take medications for life. but we are seeing that the amount of a new suppressive medications in richard are being reduced slowly. so there is this method of acceptance. and we work with a wonderful transplant surgical group here and we're using all novel medications, which have not really been used in facial transportation before. so the combination and foundation of our research, novel, innovative surgical practices, really have led to a solid result. and this is what we're seeing in richard. but so far, no limitations. >> we've seen some 22 other facial transplant surgeries before. this one, just looking at him, it seems so much more successful. is it really as good as it looks? and have you learned so much that it makes this one that much easier and better? >> well, john, in this field

which really began in 2005, a short amount of time, we have learned a great deal from the previous groups that have performed face transplants. so without their experience, there really is no room for improvement. and we've benefitted from that practice. when you look at the aesthetic result of richard, i think it's a spectacular result. and that's what we wanted to achieve. not only in a still photograph, but he has to function well. so by concealing all of the insessions so they're not visible, which was richard's aim. he wanted to blend in with society. he just wanted to be an average person, which is going on today. the functional status of richard, he's learning to speak a lot better, every day, it gets crisper and sharper. his eating is dramatically better, and his face is beginning to move like a normal face. the right side of his face has recovered about 80% and the left side of his is about 40%. he's learning to smile symmetrically. so his face is really beginning to animate. so we've benefited greatly from the pioneers. >> doctor, we've got to go.

that is fantastic news about him. dr. eduardo rodriguez, congratulations on this amazing, amazing, surgery. >> that doctor is very proud of his patient. >> absolutely. today's best advice, coming right up. [music: artist: willy moon song: "yeah yeah" label: universal] ♪ everybody well don't you know it's me now? ♪ ♪ yeah who's it, who's it huh? ♪ ♪ willy's back with a brand new beat now, ♪ ♪ yeah doin' it doin' it up! ♪ heyyy yeah, tryin' to bite my style! ♪

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a couple minutes before the hour right now. as hours, we wrap it up with best advice. >> here's christine. >> we asked cnn political analyst ron brownstein the best advice he's ever received. here's what he told us. >> not surprisingly, the best advice i've ever received was from my mother. and one was, you can sleep when you're dead. the best thing ever was, don't cry over anything that can't cry over you. best words to live by. >> don't cry over anything that can't cry over you. >> oh, brilliant! >> i'll be thinking about that one for six hours, trying to figure it out. that is all for "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning, terror plot foiled. he wanted to, quote, destroy america, blow up the federal reservnk